Farmers plan Canada Day rally 

By Patrick Meagher

OTTAWA — "June is going to be a very, very hot month, my friend," says Prescott County dairy and crop farmer Jean-Marie Menard.

He and other grassroots farmers are planning more demonstrations across the province, including blockading 400 highways truck weigh stations.

"Your imagination is as good as mine," said Menard. "It could be more food and fuel terminals. It could be other ideas."

But the mother of rallies will be back on Parliament Hill July 1, he said. Coupled with Canada Day celebrations, which draws thousands of people to Ottawa's Parliament Hill, Menard said the farmers' message will be positive and could included offering cheese and ice cream made with real cream and only Canadian ingredients. 

A day in advance, tractors will again plug Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill. "The police already know about it," Menard said.

He added that his local Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux encouraged farmers to keep up the pressure and use a positive message to be heard by Parliment. 

"The squeeky wheel gets the grease," Menard said. 

Grassroots farmers led by Menard, North Gower's Dwight Forster and Lanark County's John Spanky Vanderspank, have been demonstrating for several months now, and feel their efforts, coupled with other groups across the province, persuaded the Harper government to pour an additional $1 billion in ad hoc funds into agriculture this year. But now farmers want a long-term risk management program to replace the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program, especially for the grains and oilseeds sector.

In addition, farmers want the federal government to stop the import of protein powder at the border. Dairy farmers have had to live with reductions in how much milk they supply because processors are simply increasing foreign milk protein in powder form from other countries, Menard said. "Processors want their cake and to eat it too. They want a protected market by they want to bypass that and get a cheaper product."    

The result, said Menard, is a cut in pay to dairy producers and an inferior product on the shelf. "The cheese doesn't taste the same. The texture is different and it doesn't keep in the shelf," he said. "That has to be told to the consumer."